In the framework of the long-lasting cooperation of the Centre for Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution, the kick-off of the HELP course on Data protection and privacy rights and the certificate award ceremony of the HELP course on Hate crime and hate speech were organised on 19 March 2018. The events were held in Podgorica, Montenegro, at the premises of the Centre.

The launch was opened by Senka Danilović, President of the Steering Committee of Centre For Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution and Muhamed Gjokaj, President of the Council of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information.

Aleksa Ivanović, Member of the Council of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information and HELP national tutor described the role of the Agency in Montenegro. The adaptation of the HELP course on Data protection and privacy rights to the Montenegrin legal order was presented by the national tutors Milenka Žižić, Judge at the Appellate Court in Podgorcia and Aleksa Ivanović.

The tutored HELP course will be implemented in Montenegrin over a 3-months period for a mixed group of judge, prosecutors and lawyers. The HELP course will help legal professionals to identify violations and protect individuals from violations and apply remedies in specific areas of data protection and privacy rights such as media, medical data, e-communication, modern technologies (e.g. GPS, CCTV, drones) ad privacy at the workplace. The course regroups the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) systems by including the legal framework of the Council of Europe Convention 108 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force in May 2018 along with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

On the same day, the certificate award ceremony and debriefing meeting was organised after the completion of the HELP course on Hate crime and hate speech. 15 participants out of 22 successfully completed the course which was launched on 2 June 2017 in Podgorica for a mixed group of Montenegrin judges, prosecutors and staff of the Ombudsperson Office.